Manchester Food and Drink Festival will celebrate its 25th year in the city this September with a special roster of events, bringing together some of Manchester’s top chefs as it marks a quarter of a century in the city.
From a host of live fire pit feasts to a dedicated wine and fizz festival at NOMA, there are some exciting events on the horizon for this year’s festival, which will take place this September.
Today, the festival has announced its first wave of events as it prepares to bring its free-to-attend Festival Hub back to Cathedral Gardens.
Image: Supplied
Open from midday to 11.00pm across 15t–18 and 21–25 September, the Festival Hub will become home to an array of street food traders, bars, and artisan producers, as well as various masterclasses and takeovers.
As ever, the festival will bring together some of Manchester’s top eateries with appearances already confirmed from the likes of Michelin-trained Caroline Martins (The Sao Paulo Project), Northern Quarter favourite District, Tast, Mi and Pho, Fazenda, DGHNT and more.
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Elsewhere, there will be an artisan market overflowing with local produce, and a wide selection of local street food traders showcasing the best that Manchester has to offer.
BBQ fire pit feasts
The first ever Festival Fire Pit Takeover will be coming to the Hub for both long weekends.
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Sponsored by Weber, one of the world’s leading barbecue specialists, the Festival Fire Pit will invite some of the region’s best loved chefs to cook over fire for a first time festival feast.
Caroline Martins, founder of the Sao Paolo project, Robert Owen Brown and Francisco Martinez from Fazenda will all be bringing their own specialist BBQ flavours to the fire pit as part of Weber’s takeover.
The Festival Hub at Cathedral Garden will host the Octopus Cookbook Confidential demo kitchen on Saturday 24th September in collaboration with Octopus Books.
Top chefs and industry experts will be coming together to share their tips, ideas and knowledge in cookery demos, conversations and debate discussions. A full day of foodie demos and panels will include:
● Kate Humble & Lia Leendertz: The joy of the outdoors – Eating & Cooking with the Seasons
● Edd Kimber: Pudding Love! – discussing our love of puddings from childhood to becoming professionals and everything in between
● Pip Payne & Nicky Corbishley: Tips, ideas and hacks for putting dinner on the table every night without breaking the bank
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● Joe Woodhouse, Josh Katz & David Bez: From the swede to the courgette – why we should all be eating more veg and all the veggie inspiration you could hope for
● Jeremy Pang: School of Wok Chinese Cooking Demo
● Rahul Mandal: The Baking Surgery
● Jaega Wise vs Joel Harrison in conversation with Neil Ridley: Beer vs Cocktails
Some of Manchester’s best-loved chefs will also be joining the Festival Hub to lead cooking masterclasses on the opening weekend of the Festival – a detailed programme will be announced soon!
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Image: MFDF
Artisan food market
The much-anticipated Artisan Food Market will take place across the duration of the Festival, opening 15–18 and 22–25 September from midday to 7pm.
This free-to-attend market will showcase some of Manchester’s best food and drink producers, including New Market Dairy, The Flat Baker and DGHNT.
Beyond the Festival Hub
Away from the festival hub, an array of activities will be taking place across Manchester city centre.
MFDF will be the first event to take place at the iconic New Century in Manchester’s NOMA district to bring the Wine and Fizz Festival to town.
Opening in September, the Wine and Fizz Festival will be the first event to take place in the newly-restored space, giving wine lovers the chance to visit retailers like Cork of the North, Grape to Grain and UKiYO Republic (showcasing their wonderful range of Japanese sake). Tickets are available to buy here.
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Image: MFDF
Across the city for the duration of the festival, MFDF is also curating a lineup of fantastic restaurants to take part in their £25 for 25 years menu collaboration.
Northern Quarter favourite District will be creating an exclusive £25 drinks pairing menu to compliment their amazing Thai cuisine and celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Manchester Food and Drink Festival.
Embankment Kitchen is also creating an exclusive £25 menu to give diners a taste of the best of their offering at a reduced price.
Other restaurants taking part include Mi and Pho with a Vietnamese take on the exclusive menu offer, as well as Three Little Words, Shoryu Ramen, Tast and Society, with many more to be announced over the coming weeks.
Feature image – MFDF
News
Police reinvest record £18m seized from criminals back into Greater Manchester’s communities
Emily Sergeant
A record £18 million seized from criminals within the past year has now been reinvested back into Greater Manchester’s communities.
Greater Manchester Police‘s (GMP) confirmed that its dedicated Economic Crime Team recovered a whopping £18,150,322.56, to be precise, from criminals in the past year alone, and it’s cash that will be now be reinvested as part of the successful Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS) back into communities across Greater Manchester.
This is a record figure for the police service.
Throughout the past year, GMP says it has conducted more than 850 Proceeds of Crime (POCA) hearings.
As a result of these hearings, police have recovered millions from convicted drug dealers, fraudsters, crime gangs, and money launderers, as well as recovering a ‘significant’ amount of gold.
Police have reinvested record £18m seized from criminals back into Greater Manchester’s communities / Credit: GMP
You may remember that, back in May last year, officers working at Manchester Airport stopped a man found to be carrying five gold bars weighing more than 15kg in his hand luggage as he prepared to fly abroad.
Following this seizure, GMP was then granted in February its largest-ever forfeiture order for gold bars – valued at £1.8m.
Some of the other seizures and forfeitures over the past year include just over £135,000 from a suspect after his car was stopped on the M62 in November 2025, and another £138,144 was recovered from a man after he pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.
GMP was granted its largest-ever forfeiture order for gold bars – valued at £1.8m / Credit: GMP
“The work of our Economic and Cyber Crime Unit in the last 12 months to recover over £18 million in criminal assets has been nothing short of outstanding,” commented Assistant Chief Constable Rick Jackson, who is GMP’s lead for crime.
“This record figure reflects the hard work and dedication of our officers and staff to investigate, solve crime and bring offenders to justice.
“As we move into a new financial year, we will continue to maintain an ambitious and innovative approach while adapting and developing with partners to target criminal assets and embrace technology to remain a step ahead of changing criminal activity.
“Through using the ARIS process, this criminal money can be reinvested back into local communities for the benefit of the public we serve.
“This work reflects GMP’s continued drive to deliver an outstanding service to our Greater Manchester communities while building public trust and confidence in the service we deliver.”
Featured Image – GMP
News
Dispute over Manichester now ‘resolved’, say Mounfield family
Danny Jones
The family of the late, great Manchester musician, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, have said that the drama surrounding the highly-anticipated tribute festival in his name, Manichester, has now thankfully been settled.
Now the focus can once again return to remembering him as best as possible.
Following plenty of talk about the project following his passing late last year, a live music festival honouring Mani was finally confirmed in March, and the reaction following the event’s announcement has been unsurprisingly phenomenal.
Well, at least for the most part, as there was also some confusion over whether or not Manichester was still a charitable effort as advertised, with son Gene Mounfield disputing claims online. Fortunately, it all seems to have been put to bed now.
On behalf of the boys, and as their legal guardian, I want to thank everyone for the kind messages and concern for their wellbeing. There was a misunderstanding regarding the upcoming Manichester tribute concert, but we’re pleased to share that everything has now been resolved. pic.twitter.com/j8jEMrFzsD
Being organised by Madchester.com and locally-founded fashion label, GIOGOI, the debut edition was said to have the total blessing of Mani’s family, including his brother, Greg Mounfield.
It was also said that the funds raised by the show would be going to the legendary Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassists’ twins, George and Gene, but the latter recently argued that “nothing” was going to either him or his brother and that the news was “dropped” the plans just a fortnight prior.
Gene also said that “if it was a charity gig it would be at Co-op [Live] or Heaton Park, and it would be done by SJM [Concerts]”: a Manchester-based promoters and events company.
All of this was also wrapped up in ever more paper talk and sensationalism, as some were reporting that Noel and Liam Gallagher, as well as other members of Oasis, would be surprising fans as the still yet to be revealed ‘major headliner’.
These rumours have since been quashed, as has whatever miscommunication caused the misunderstanding between the parties concerned, and we are now back to simply looking forward to seeing an already stacked lineup here in the city centre this May.
Damon Minchella of Ocean Colour Scene (a fellow bassist who also tours with Richard Ashcroft) is helping organise and will also be performing on the night itself. As for the surviving Mounfields, they went on to add in an accompanying Instagram post: “We would also like to express our gratitude to PH.
“It means a great deal to all of us that so many people loved Mani enough to give their time and energy to honour his memory in this way. We are genuinely touched by the support.
“It has been an incredibly difficult few years for the boys and for our whole family. We hope this event will bring some much‑needed joy and create new, positive memories for everyone who cared about him.
“With love and thanks – The Family”
It goes without saying that we can’t wait for this city and Greater Manchester as a whole to honour a Manc icon and are looking forward to another year celebrating the thing that never fails to bring us all together: music.
Georgina Pellant -
22nd July 2022 
